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Saturday, April 9, 2016

Nirmal, Naeem hold meeting with 7 NIT
students

Ministers don’t face Press;
media barred from entering fortified NIT; students take out candle march

Ahmed Ali
Fayyaz

_______

JAMMU, April
8: Two Ministers of Mehbooba Mufti’s government---Deputy Chief Minister Dr
Nirmal Singh of BJP and Education Minister Naeem Akhtar of PDP---on Friday held
their first meeting with the restive students of the National Institute of
Technology (NIT) even as they were advised by the Government against visiting
the campus and a small group of seven students was ferried for the meeting all
the way from Hazratbal to Civil Lines in the summer capital of Srinagar.

A number of
the leaders of the BJP leaders, including Ministers, had planned to visit
Srinagar while as the union Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani
was still assessing the situation when top J&K government functionaries
pleaded with the Centre on Thursday that such visits could “vitiate the
atmosphere further”, well-placed sources said. They said that J&K Director
General of Police, K Rajendra Kumar, spoke to senior officials of the union
Ministry of Home Affairs and made it clear that the politicians’ visits and
potentially rhetorical speeches and statement could delay return of peace at
the campus.

The DGP,
according to the sources, warned the Central authorities that the politicians’
statements could evoke reactions from the momentarily mute Kashmir valley and
the trouble could spill over to the nearby University of Kashmir and several
colleges. As a consequence of New Delhi’s directives, Deputy Chief Minister,
who had by then arrived in Srinagar, was diverted to an unscheduled meeting
with officers of Power Development Department. Besides, two BJP MLCs, Ramesh
Arora and Sunil Ambardar, were directed to cancel their programme.

According to
sources, J&K Police provided video footage of the students purportedly
assaulting the officers and resorting to heavy stone pelting on Police besides
damaging the College properties.

Mehbooba
Mufti’s Government also succeeded in convincing the Centre that the students’
interaction with media could multiply the tension. Consequently, none of the
mediapersons, not even the crews flown in from New Delhi, were permitted to
meet the students.

On the
campus, the students from different Indian States, who have boycotted the
classes, gathered in the evening and they staged a march while carrying candles
to press their demands. Their demands included withdrawal of the two FIRs
registered against them at Police Station Nigeen, permitting them to meet with
the Press, restoration of Internet and wi-fi facilities at the campus besides
action against the Policemen involved in the April 5th lathi charge
on them, replacement of J&K Police with CRPF, migration of the students to
other NITs and an assurance that the faculty would not harass them or reduce
their ratings in the examinations.

In the wake
of hectic developments, authorities decided to ferry a group of six male
students and a female student in a CRPF-protected vehicle to Dy CM’s residence
at Bunglaow No: 5, Maulana Azad Road. The meeting with Dr Singh and Naeem
Akhtar was also joined by Chairman Board of Governors M.J. Zarabi and Director
NIT Rajesh Gupta.

After the
two-hour-long meeting concluded, the students were taken out from the Banquet
Hall exit so as to ensure that they were not spotted by the media outside. Naeem
Akhar drove straight to his official residence, Bungalow M-I, Gupkar Road while
as Zarabi and Gupta left for NIT. None of them slowed down for an interaction
with media.

Since the
Government continued to remain tightlipped, nobody had inkling as to what
transpired in the meeting.